Community equipment services - information for professionals

The Community Equipment Service (CES) is supplied by Millbrook Healthcare in Portsmouth, providing a comprehensive, professional and responsive service to patients, service users, and clinical practitioners (or 'prescribers') operating across the whole of the health, social care, and education sectors in Portsmouth.

The Community Equipment Service sources, supplies, delivers, collects, cleans and maintains equipment that is issued by occupational therapists, physiotherapists, district nurses and others, to help people with disabilities and health problems to return to, or remain in, their homes.

It also provides technical support and advice.

The service is funded from a 'pooled budget', made up of contributions from Portsmouth City Council and Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group.

For specific enquiries about the CES service, please contact us at Adult Social Care. Clients need to be assessed by adult social care services to receive equipment supplied by the CES.

Millbrook Healthcare opening hours Open / Close

The opening hours of the Millbrook service are Monday - Thursday 9am - 5pm, Friday 9am - 6pm and Saturday 9am - noon. There is also a 24-hour emergency service.

Prescribers can also access certain items of equipment outside Millbrook's usual hours through a series of small sub-stores, sometimes referred to as peripheral stores, mainly based at acute and community hospitals in the city.

Ordering equipment Open / Close

Only authorised clinical personnel (prescribers) such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists and nurses, can have access to the CES. They need a valid CES Personal Identification Number (PIN) to maintain professional standards and effective management of the pooled fund. The structure of the PINs also allows the gathering of important management information.

The PIN system is managed through the Adult Social Care team at Portsmouth City Council, who require certain information and authorisation before a PIN can be created or changed. PINs will not normally be issued until someone has completed the necessary Prescriber Training.

Once in possession of a PIN, a prescriber may place orders for equipment through the Millbrook online ordering system 'Millflow'. If their requirements exceed the level of access granted by their PIN, or under certain circumstances relating to budget controls, orders may be referred to more senior colleagues to obtain authorising sanction for an order to continue.

Orders are placed by using numbered requisitions generated as the online ordering system which has the benefits of increased speed, security, and other enhancements. In all cases, however, prescribers must ensure that all relevant fields are filled in clearly and correctly to ensure effective processing of the order, and that any vital or useful additional information is included.

Returning equipment to the CES Open / Close

Contact the CES team, who will arrange for the equipment to be collected, or phone Millbrook Healthcare on the number above.

Portsmouth Care Home Equipment Policy Open / Close

This policy is for professionals and care/residential home providers and details the equipment that can be provided by the community equipment store and what equipment should be provided by the care/residential home.

Available to view and download below, the policy also outlines the terms and conditions of loaning the equipment to care/residential homes.